The First Victim
by SilverBulletAngel
Summary: Based on the German movie M, starring Peter Lorre. What if there was a victim before that one we first learn about? No one knows her and she's not important. Rated T for a strange, strange discovery, if you want to be that nice about it.
1. Meet Andrea

Yeah, it's real short, but I don't think it'll bore you too bad.

I shivered in the street. People walked by, but no one noticed. No one knew. I would've given an arm and a leg (not that it mattered) for something to eat. Then I heard whistling. The tune was familar, but I would never be able to place it. Eventually, the whistling grew louder and a man stopped a few stores down. He was dressed nicely and wore a hat, and just stared ahead. I wasn't sure if it was at me or someone else. When he took a few more steps, he stopped again and looked in the window of the toy store.  
Maybe he was the muderer, I thought foolishly. I took my crutch and stood unsteadily. Limping over, he pretended not to see me.

"Hello!" I said politely.

He glanced at me, and started to whistle again.

I frowned and started to turn, and his hand touched my shoulder. "What's your name?" he asked.

I turned back. "Andrea. What is yours?"

"Hans," he answered. "What happened to your leg?"

"My father broke it."

"Oh, really? Why?"

"He didn't like me."

"I'm sorry to hear that." He turned back to the window. But he looked a bit uneasy, and spoke to me again. "Is your mother around?"

"I don't have a mother. She is dead. So is my father."

He fell silent for a few seconds. "Are you hungry?"

I nodded quickly. "Yes, sir."

He put an arm around my shoulders. "Come on."


	2. Suffer No More

Andrea limped along as they walked through the now thinning crowds. The night dragged on, and she followed him into a candy store. He bought her chocolate and an orange. As they walked through the park, he held the box and she popped one after another into her mouth.

"Thank you very much for this." She stuck her hand in to find nothing. "Could I have the orange?"

"Of course." He whistled as he stuck his hand into his pocket. Slowly Hans withdrew a knife, which he flipped open.

Andrea's heart pounded. He _was_ the murderer!

But he cut the peel off the orange and threw them absentmindedly to the ground. He gave her a piece.

"Come." He led the crippled girl to a bench in the shadows of the trees. He allowed her to finish the orange. "When have you last eaten?"

"Last week."

"You won't have to worry about starving much longer, my child."

"Why?"

He took out the knife and wiped the blade with a handkerchief. "Hm. Just a hunch."

She reached for her crutch, but he pulled it away quickly. "I want to go."

"You're not going to." He put the handchief back in his shirt pocket.

"What are you doing?"

With a hand on her shoulder, he put the knife to her throat. "You don't have to suffer."

"No!" She threw herself on the ground and crawled away.

Hans got up, but hesitated. This was a chance for her to get away.

_No! Don't let her escape! She'll go to the police and they'll realize it was you!_

He tried hard to restrain himself from following. Andrea didn't get far.

_Put her out of her misery. Now.  
_  
He picked her up by the back of her shirt and raised the knife. The agonized scream echoed through the night.

_

The orange thing is based from the last victim. Sorry about the voices part. When I first visualized this story, the voices seemed more demanding that pleading. If anyone has an idea on how to fix it, don't hesitate to let me know.


	3. Who's That?

The boys chased the girls through the park. They pretended to be the murderer coming to kill them. One of the girls, Elsie Beckmann, ran behind some trees to hide. She covered her mouth to mute the giggling, but it died altogether when she stepped on something. Elsie looked down and screamed. A pale girl with a slash across her throat lie there with a crutch in her hand.

"Elsie!" yelled the other girl.

She instantly forgot the body and ran to reunite with her friends. No one had ever known about the body of Andrea in the park until a month after Hans Beckert's death. The parents were called to step forward to identify the body, but she remained in the morgue. After a week, a young woman came and told police that she passed a young girl with a crutch at her side the night before she died. A man came shortly afterwards to claim seeing the girl and Beckert, and she introduced herself as Andrea.

Children in that same neighborhood used the name in those games they played. In the song was always the man in black, and the loser was always Andrea: the crippled girl who was unimportant and forgotten.

*snores*


End file.
